The Committee inscribed the site on the World Heritage List on the basis of criteria (ii) and (iv):

Criterion (ii): Lyon bears exceptional testimony to the continuity of urban settlement over more than two millennia on a site of great commercial and strategic significance, where cultural traditions from many parts of Europe have come together to create a coherent and vigorous continuing community.

Criterion (iv): By virtue of the special way in which it has developed spatially, Lyon illustrates in an exceptional way the progress and evolution of architectural design and town planning over many centuries.

The Delegate of Finland, had doubted at the meeting of the twenty-second session of the Bureau the universal significance of this nomination. He now expressed his support for this nomination not as an example unusual for its homogenous urban structure, but on the contrary of its very additive character.